Jackson Arnold details Sooners win over Temple with Paul Finebaum

Oklahoma Sooners sophomore starting quarterback Jackson Arnold got his first career win on Friday night, while making his debut as OU’s full-time starter. Oklahoma beat Temple by a score of 51-3 in Norman, as Arnold threw four touchdown passes.

Arnold joined host Paul Finebaum on “The Paul Finebaum Show” on Tuesday to go over the win, OU’s first as an official member of the Southeastern Conference. Arnold told Finebaum that he was happy with the win over the Owls, but that the Sooners had plenty of things to clean up on offense.

“(In the) film room first off, just seeing what the mistakes actually are, whether it’s missed assignments, missed signals, missed throws or missed reads,” Arnold said. “Anything like that you first see it in the film room, know what you need to adjust and then you go out to the field whether it’s the next day or next couple days and you work on those things that you messed up.”

The SEC analyst commented that the offense looked very vanilla in the first game, something offensive coordinator Seth Littrell also alluded to in his postgame press conference. But Arnold said that things are about to change.

“The playbook is definitely going to open up,” Arnold said. “It’s not that the playbook was very vanilla to begin with for the game plan it’s just Coach Littrell liked the things that Coach Littrell liked. I felt like he called a great game, put us in great positions, and I think for these next couple weeks it’s just us developing an identity, really establishing what we’re going to do with this offense and yeah I’m super excited for these next couple weeks to really open up the offense.”

Arnold also talked about his growth as a leader and his confidence coming into this season, as he knew he was going to be “the guy” after Dillon Gabriel’s portal exit. He credited his coaches for their help in his development in that area as well.

“That was the biggest thing, I think, for me this offseason was going into a situation where I knew I was going to be the guy,” Arnold said. “I knew that all these coaches had faith in me to go out and perform. I think for me, just building that leadership and the toughness that it takes to be the quarterback at, not only a Power Four school, but at the University of Oklahoma. Just having the offseason to really prepare myself for what I was walking into was huge for me, and to build chemistry with my coaches and my teammates.” —

Arnold is no doubt aware of the heavy burden he carries on his shoulders both in the present and the future at Oklahoma, but his first start as “the guy” showed he’s got the potential to lead the Sooners were they want to go.

Oklahoma will face the Houston Cougars on Saturday night in Norman. Kickoff is set for 6:45 p.m.

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